I'm not one that is good at talking about themselves, but I will do my best.

The easiest place to start is video games. They've been a much bigger part of my life than anything else. Video games have always allowed me to think about things, and their mechanics, in ways that other media just cannot replicate. For example, playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time would have you get to a part in the game where a route is blocked, but there is another route you can take.

In this area, you find an item, let's use the slingshot in this example. Now that you have the slingshot, you go back to the first route presented to you, and you can now destroy the Skulltulas that were previously blocking your vine climbing ability.

There are so many ways that this game was able to make me think about the next step, how I would get past that step, and what to look out for (and therefore keep in my mind for future use). Just for fun, let's use the Deku Stick you acquire a little before getting to the slingshot. You kill the Deku Baba, and it drops the stick. The stick is a limited hit item, meaning that after just a few hits (or sometimes even one!) it will break, and you have to use another from your stock if you have any.

Now, once you enter the Great Deku tree, and get a little farther into the dungeon, you'll be tasked with getting a spider web out of the way of a door. The game asks you to figure out what to do in this conundrum. Realistically, we all know Link could've just cut the web, but what the game was wanting you to do is think outside the box.

I can kind of remember how smart I felt after I ran by the lit torch, and lit the stick on fire. I believe I subsequently learned immediately after that, yes, the water will indeed put your stick's fire out! This was the beginning of training my brain to look at all the applications just one of Link's new repertoire could unlock, let alone every item after.

"I wonder if I can use the boomerang to get that Skulltula coin?" I could! "I wonder if I can use the bow and arrow to shoot an arrow through this torch's flame to melt the ice that is over there?" I could! It was so fascinating to see what the game was implying, even going as far as dropping arrows close to or around the area of this arrow through a torch fire example. Needless to say, Ocarina of Time's systems walked, so that Breath of the Wild's systems could sprint.

Shifting gears from video games, another defining memory from my early life involves a special place - a nice little cedar log cabin that my dad built with his own hands, in a hollow. In his own words, "Holler".

While the picture below is as close as I could get, the wood was much more "fresh" looking, so no rustic charm, but more of a cottagecore charm. Must be why I like cozy places so much.

I can distinctly recall the smell of cedar upon entering the cabin, especially whenever I was away for a while at a friend's. You don't know how much I have searched and searched for things that smell like cedar just to get a whiff of that nostalgic scent. When they say a scent can take you back in time, they are not kidding!

Besides that, I also remember the creek we had that was just a ways in front of the cabin. My mom and dad had a little awning out there where they would unwind, talk, and laugh. This was quite a time before cell phones were a constant thing to distract from the everyday lull moments. I can remember times where I would go out there and hear them laughing or murmuring their secrets.

One of the best memories I have of this cabin, is being outside with the two of them at almost dark. My mother and I had brought a stray white cat with us when we moved in with my father. Since he was a stray, we never named him, but of course we fed him while we were living at the old place, and he could usually be found in a flower pot right on top of our window mounted air conditioner.

To preface what I'm going to say next, I should tell you that my father was a jokester. When we first moved in with him, he saw how close me and the stray cat were. He made the comment one time, "Look at that shitty kitty follow that boy around!" and that was what the white cat, Shitty Kitty, was from then on called.

So, to the memory. We were all outside, under the awning. They had an empty box of what used to contain beer on the table. Shitty Kitty came over and I started loving on him. I was playing with him and put him in the box. Little did I know that that would make him excited!

I would scratch the top of the box, and he would quickly flick that paw out at me! To mess with him even further, I picked the box up, and tilted it so that Shitty Kitty would get out of it. At this point my mom and dad were laughing with me.

I then point at the box and say, "Get back in there, Kitty!" To not only my surprise, but my mom and dad's, Shitty Kitty pounced into the box, ready to flick that paw back out at the next opportunity! We were all laughing so hard as I did this a few more times. I hope that I do not forget this memory.

The computer was one of the most fascinating things I was privileged enough to experience at the time. While the image below is not representative of what I grew up with, it captures the essence of that era of computing.